here's what walmart (and price chopper, and k-mart) do for their "great savings"

about 1-2 months in advance, they slowly mark the prices up... sometimes 10 cents, sometimes a dollar or two and it goes up until it's about 50 cents under the brand name item... people buy the store brand because it's still cheaper... at the same time they're also increasing the costs of the brand name item around 15-30 percent.... this spikes 2 weeks before the sale so that people see the sticker...

then they put the item "on sale"... and it's still between 15 and 20 percent MORE than it was to begin with. Notice the "buy one get one" deals you're only saving 50 cents to a dollar from the previous week if you'd have bought two of the item. it sucks but that's the way it is.

I think WalMart asking companies they buy from to reduce packing and production costs is not a bad thing. I buy from local farmers markets whenever I can, but it's just not practical on all things. Explain to me how Kroger jumped the price of milk from $3.49 gallon to $4.99/gallon in a week, but at Sam's or Walmart it is still $2.75-$3.00? Same thing with cereal - box of cereal at Kroger went up to $3.99 and at Walmart still $2.66. My Arnold Whole Wheat Bread is almost $4 at Kroger and still $1.89 at Walmart. Our Walmart bring in palets of fresh veggies and fruit they buy from farmers. The "locally grown" at my Giant comes from Florida or Pennsylvania. I get that small stores don't buy in bulk and cannot compete with Walmart, but I don't see Walmart any differently than our SuperTarget, SuperKMart or PetSmart. All of these came in and drove small locally owned shops out of business, increased traffic, required widening of the road, new stop lights, broke water mains etc all that taxpayers had to fix. Now there's no money in the budget to come out and pave my road.

When walmart forces a supplier to lower costs where do you think the lowered costs come from? They don't just say 'oh, we used to charge $1.00 for this, walmart wants it cheaper, so we'll now only charge $.90.' And poof, prices lowered!? No, they cut costs so they can lower the price. That may be by using lower quality ingredients, going to a cheaper laboring source (child labor maybe?), or cutting out inspections.

When walmart lowers prices, the quality of the item is also lowered. Lots of companies that supply product to walmart have a separate production line just for the low-cost walmart stuff. If you've ever been a regular shopper for a specific item at walmart, chances are you've noticed a degradation of quality on that item over the years.

"When our grocery suppliers bring price increases, we don't just accept them," says Pamela Kohn, Wal-Mart's general merchandise manager for perishables. To be sure, Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) isn't the only retailer working to cut fat from the food chain, but as the largest grocer - Wal-Mart's food and consumables revenue is nearly $100 billion - it has a disproportionate amount of leverage.

I know there are a lot of Walmart haters out there..Have you ever noticed how many threads have been started about Walmart? kinda funny why a store would be so controversial.. I guess I just think that they provide a good service to a lot of consumers, especially those on a fixed income.. not to mention provide jobs to many who may not be able to find work...I think I heard that 3,000 people lined up in the Chicago area to apply for jobs there...it can't be all that bad...

they don't just accept them??!? SO the supplier has to eat the increased cost of shipping (from every aspect of producing food products. feed for animals, shipping produce seeds ect) so that WM can make another buck.

I try my damnedest to NOT shop there. We buy most of our groceries from Win Co, Saar's, or Albertson. WM has never saved us much on our grocery bill, and they almost never have everything we are looking for the few times we did shop there. Ive tried to convince my sister about this, but she is just sure that WM is cheapest (just because she can get Pantene cheapest there) I think I have about 6 different grocery stores within 5 miles (and countless more within 10 miles) so i have no reason to shop for my groceries there. Thank God!

not only are their suppliers expected not to increase their prices, often their contracts require them to reduce their prices over the length of the contract. Some companies have bankrupted themselves trying to meet the lower price and others just move offshore and layoff their American workforce.

The funny thing is I don't even shop at Walmart.. but I just believe they are no different than Target..

IMHO

If Wal-Mart is so bad, why do 100 million Americans shop there every week? Is a third of the population too dumb to know they're acting against their own interests?

Wal-Mart employs 1.3 million people in this country. Yes, their wages are low, by and large. But if they could find better jobs, why are these people working at Wal-Mart? If Wal-Mart didn't exist, why do you think they'd be paid higher wages?

Do small businesses - the fabled "mom and pop" stores you hear so much about - have a right to remain in business, even though they charge people more than Wal-Mart does for the same products? If so, what other professions have a right to charge above-market prices for their goods and services? Do I have a right to double my salary as a talk show host, regardless of how many people watch my show?

You attack Wal-Mart's desire to beat its competitors. But how is it different from any other company's competitive desire? How is it different from any professional athlete's?

If Wal-Mart is so bad, why do 100 million Americans shop there every week? Is a third of the population too dumb to know they're acting against their own interests?

...There are way too many reasons to list for this, and none of them are as simple as they are "too dumb." I bet a lot of those people know that Walmart is not a good company. However, for some people, unfortunately their prices are the only ones they can afford because in some areas of the country, Walmart is the best deal. And a lot of people don't think in the long run. All they care about is feeding their family on a budget, not about the state of the U.S. or world economy.

Yes, Walmart provides over a million jobs. But the conditions under which some of the jobs are worked are awful. So why should people support a company that has such policies? Why not push for a higher wage and better working conditions? Why should those people have to settle? Companies don't have to be an awful employer in order to be successful. Research the company Patagonia. Working there would be awesome.

Ditto! I use a local grocery store and stockpile shop there (buy a lot of what is on sale each week so I can make meals out of food that is always on sale). Meat is better and better priced as well. My store uses one of those "customer reward cards" and has a tally at the bottom of how much I saved this trip and how much I have saved to date. In the three and a half years I have not shopped at Wal-mart, I have saved over $7,000! I noticed that generally when Wal-mart would put things on sale, they weren't really on sale. Once they had Oreos for "2 for $5" when the regular price of them were $2.50 each. Another time their "sale" was on Cheez-its also 2 for $5 when the regular price was $2.49. Hmmmm. Lower prices still don't make up for poor customer service and employee respect.

Me, too, you guys. I ALWAYS come out with more stuff from our local Kroger store, ALWAYS.

Then, again, I don't have to have certain name brand items every week. I just get what's on sale and stock up on those items for future use. And I use coupons from the Sunday paper which they double up to a buck.

Plus time is short for me these days. I don't have 20 minutes to wait in line at Wally World.

In some places, walmart is the only place people have for shopping unless they drive an hour or so to another town. In effect, they're forced to because the stores that existed before wm came in are no longer there.